Nearly 1 In 3 Americans To Receive Medicare Or Medicaid Benefits in 2010 For Almost $1 Trillion

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released their 2010 budget report on “Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Fiscal Year: Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees.” HHS estimates that nearly 1 in 3 American will receive health insurance benefits through Medicare and Medicaid and related supplementary programs at cost of nearly $1 trillion dollars ($821 billion). The sustainability of these numbers over time is concerning and questionable given that the federal government collects around $3 trillion per year in total tax revenues.

Keep in mind these figures do not include the many millions of people that will be added to Medicare and Medicaid if the current health bill plan passes through Congress. Check the end of the report for a few short citations from the lengthy report along with a link to review the complete HHS report.

Here are several excerpts from the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Fiscal Year 2010 report:

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is an Operating Division within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The creation of CMS (previously the Health Care Financing Administration) in 1977 brought together, under unified leadership, the two largest Federal health care programs at that time–Medicare and Medicaid. In 1997, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (previously the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or SCHIP) was established to address the health care needs of uninsured children.

CMS remains the largest purchaser of health care in the United States. For more than 40 years, Medicare and Medicaid have helped pay the medical bills of millions of older and low-income Americans, providing them with reliable health benefits. We expect to serve over 98 million beneficiaries in FY 2010, almost one in three Americans. Medicare and Medicaid combined pay about one-third of the Nation’s health expenditures. Few programs, public or private, have such a positive impact on so many Americans.

CMS outlays more benefits than any other Federal agency and we are committed to administering our programs as efficiently as possible. In FY 2010, benefit costs are expected to total $803.1 billion. Non-benefit costs, which include administrative costs such as Program Management, Medicaid State and local administration, non-CMS administrative costs, the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control account (HCFAC), the Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO), and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program (CLIA), among others, are estimated at $21.2 billion or 2.6 percent of total benefits. CMS’ non-benefit costs are minute when compared to Medicare benefits and the Federal share of Medicaid and CHIP benefits. Remarkably, Program Management costs are only one-half of one percent of these benefits.